Maurice Cox, Director of Planning and Development for the City of Detroit, former Design Director for the National Endowment for the Arts, and former Mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, will speat to The Dallas Architecture Forum on February 21 at the Magnolia Theater in the West Village. Photo Courtesy of Mr. Cox.

The Dallas Architecture Forum Presents

Nationally Recognized Director of Planning

Maurice Cox

Wednesday, 21 February 2018

At the Magnolia Theater, West Village

The Dallas Architecture Forum is pleased to continue its 2017-2018 lecture season with Maurice Cox, Director of Planning and Development for the City of Detroit, Michigan. This lecture will be presented in partnership with The University of Texas at Arlington College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs (CAPPA).

Maurice Cox, Planning Director for the City of Detroit, is an urban designer, architectural educator and former mayor of the City of Charlottesville, VA. He most recently served as Associate Dean for Community Engagement at Tulane University, School of Architecture and Director of the Tulane City Center, a university-affiliated practice operating at the intersection of design, urban research and civic engagement throughout the New Orleans community. Cox has taught at Syracuse University, the University of Virginia and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. His experience merging architecture, politics and design education led to his being named one of “20 Masters of Design” in 2004 by Fast Company Business Magazine. He served as Design Director of the National Endowment for the Arts where he led the NEA’s Your Town Rural Institute, the Governor’s Institute on Community Design, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, and oversaw direct design grants to the design community across the U.S. In 2013, Cox was named one of the Most Admired Design Educators in America in the annual ranking of Design Intelligence.

Cox will speak on Wednesday, February 21 at 7:00 p.m., with check-in and reception at 6:15 p.m., at the Magnolia Theater in the West Village.

“Maurice Cox has achieved a nationally acclaimed reputation as a community designer who incorporates active citizen participation into the urban design and planning process,” stated Forum Executive Director Nate Eudaly. “In presenting the challenges, and his strategies for redeveloping the urban core of the City of Detroit, we believe Mr. Cox will present a program that is sure to be of great interest to residents and city leaders throughout North Texas.”

The lecture will occur at 7 p.m. on February 21 with a complimentary reception beginning at 6:15 p.m. Tickets are $20 per lecture for general admission and $5 for students (with ID). Tickets can be purchased at the door before the lecture. No reservations are needed to attend Forum lectures. Dallas Architecture Forum members receive free admission to all regular Forum lectures as a benefit of membership, and AIA members can earn one hour of CE credit for each lecture. For more information on the Dallas Architecture Forum, visit www.dallasarchitectureforum.org or call 214-764-2406.

Reception and check-in 6:15 from 6:15-6:55 Magnolia Theater, West Village

Maurice Cox is a nationally acclaimed community designer and leader of the public interest design movement. He is widely respected for his ability to incorporate active citizen participation into the urban design and planning process. Maurice has a reputation for developing bold – yet achievable – plans that become tools for civic discourse and empowerment, embraced by diverse sectors of the community. As the Planning and Development Director for the City of Detroit, Maurice is in charge of the long-term vision for a redeveloped Detroit — improving Detroit’s neighborhoods, developing strategies to boost stable areas of the city with new business and residential development, and devising uses for the vast tracts of vacant lots and other city owned properties.

Cox was born and educated in New York City. He received his bachelor's in architecture from the prestigious Cooper Union School of Architecture and was awarded the Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he has also served on the faculty. Cox taught for Syracuse University and at the University of Virginia, which led to him serving as city councilmember and then mayor of the City of Charlottesville, Virginia from 1996-2004. During Cox’s mayoral term the city was ranked as the “#1 Best Place to Live in the USA & Canada” by Frommer’s Cities Ranked and Rated. Under his leadership, Charlottesville completed several urban design initiatives, including the passage of an award-winning zoning ordinance in support of mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented development; new infill residential neighborhoods and mixed-income, higher-density housing; and the design of a new, two-mile, federally funded parkway entrance into the city.

Previous to his current position, Maurice served as Associate Dean for Community Engagement at Tulane University’s School of Architecture and Director of the Tulane City Center, a university-affiliated practice operating at the intersection of design, urban research, and civic engagement throughout New Orleans. He also served as Design Director of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), where he led the NEA’s Your Town Rural Institute, the Governors’ Institute on Community Design, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, and oversaw grants to the design community across the United States. His experience merging architecture, politics and design education and his engagement of diverse sections of the community led to his being named one of “20 Masters of Design in 2004 by Fast Company. In 2013, Cox was named one of the Most Admired Design Educators in America in the annual ranking by Design Intelligence.

About the Dallas Architecture Forum

The Dallas Architecture Forum is a not-for-profit civic organization that brings leading architectural thought leaders from around the world to speak in Dallas and also fosters important local dialogue about the major issues impacting our urban environment. The Forum was founded in 1996 by some of Dallas’ leading architects, business, cultural and civic leaders, and it continues to benefit from active support and guidance from these citizens. The Forum fulfills its mission of providing a continuing and challenging public discourse on architecture and urban design in - and for - the Dallas area. The Dallas Architecture Forum's members include architects, design professionals, students and educators, and a broad range of civic-minded individuals and companies intent to improve the urban environment in North Texas. The Forum has been recognized nationally with an AIA Collaboration Achievement Award for its strategic partnerships with other organizations focused on architecture, urban planning and the arts. For more information on the Forum, visit www.DallasArchitectureForum.org.

Among the over 230 speakers who have addressed the Forum’s Lecture Series are Shigeru Ban, Brad Cloepfil, Diller + Scofidio, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Daniel Libeskind, Thomas Phifer, Rafael Vinoly, Juhani Pallasmaa, AIA Gold Medal Winner Peter Bohlin, and regional architects David Lake and Ted Flato. Pritzker Prize winners speaking to the Forum have been Kazuyo Sejima, Rafael Moneo, Thom Mayne, Rem Koolhaas and Norman Foster (the latter two in collaboration with the ATT Performing Arts Center). Other speakers for the Forum have been leading designers Calvin Tsao, Andrée Putman, and Karim Rashid; landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh; and National Trust President Emeritus Richard Moe. Important critics, authors and patrons who have spoken to the Forum include Emily Pulitzer, Terence Riley, Pulitzer Prize winners Robert Campbell and Blair Kamin, Aaron Betsky, and the late David Dillon.

The Forum organizes and presents an annual series of Panels—local, informal, open, and offered free of charge as a public service to the community—led by a moderator who brings a subject of local importance along with comments by participating panelists. Moderators and Panelists have also come from both other Texas cities as well as from national institutions that were connected with particular Panel subjects. Panels offer attendees the opportunity to participate in creating discourse. Important topics addressed in Panels in recent years include: “Thoughts on the Dallas Comprehensive Plan”; “The Kimbell Expansion: A Discussion”; “Filling Out the Dallas Arts District”; and “Re-envisioning the Trinity”.

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Dallas Architecture Forum

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The Dallas Architecture Forum provides a continuing and challenging public discourse on architecture and urban design in -- and for-- the Dallas area.

The Forum offers presentations of architecture through public lectures by designers, critics, and historians; through topical discussions; and through study tours to buildings and cities regionally and throughout the world.

The Dallas Architecture Forum serves as an inclusive arena where people interested in and concerned with the built environment -- professionals and non-professionals alike -- may interact intellectually and socially.